Bee swarm on your house
A bee swarm on your house is a colony between homes: thousands of bees hanging in a cluster while scouts search for a new hollow. North Devon lore made a swarm settling on a dead branch a sign of the owner's death within a year.
What it may mean
A hanging swarm looks alarming, yet the same bees are often calmer than they were at home. In late spring the old queen leaves with a large share of the workers, the cloud settles on a branch or an eave, and the cluster hangs there while a few hundred scouts fly off to inspect hollows. With no comb, no honey stores and no young to protect, the swarm has very little to defend. People between homes can be like that too. After a move, a layoff or a breakup, with little left to guard, many find themselves unusually open: talking to strangers, saying yes to invitations, asking for directions without embarrassment. The in-between stretch is uncomfortable, and it can also be a soft one. A swarm on your eaves shows both at once.
Depending on how you saw it
A cluster under the eaves for a day
Most swarms stay only a few hours or a couple of days before the scouts agree and the whole cloud lifts off. A beekeeper can often collect one before then. How long can you stay in a temporary place before you start calling it home?
Calling to the bees in Cornwall
When their bees swarmed, the Cornish called out "Brownie, Brownie," a 1903 collection says, to the spirit they believed would keep the swarm from returning to the old hive. What do you call out, or say to yourself, when you want something restless to settle?
A swarm on a baby's mouth
An old story told of Plato that bees settled on his mouth when he was in his cradle, and the Greeks took bees as an omen of eloquence. Whose sweet words, early in your life, shaped the way you speak now?
Why it happens in nature
Swarming is how a honeybee colony reproduces. The old queen leaves with a large share of the workers, and the swarm clusters on a branch, wall or eave while scout bees search for a cavity and report back with dances. Swarming bees have no comb or young to defend, and once enough scouts agree on a site, the cluster flies off together.
What folk beliefs say
England (North Devon)
In North Devon, a 1903 collection says, if a swarm of bees lights on a dead branch, it indicates the death of the owner within a year.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 578. View the page
Wales
In Wales, if a swarm of bees settles on the ground, it is a sign of death.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 578. View the page
England (Cornwall)
The Cornish invoked the spirit Brownie when their bees swarmed, crying "Brownie, Brownie" to keep them from returning to their former hive.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 577. View the page
Ancient Greece
It was said of Plato that when he was in his cradle a swarm of bees lighted on his mouth; the Greeks believed bees to be omens of eloquence.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 580. View the page
To reflect on
When you had little left to guard, how did it change the way you met new people?